The support and guide system of magnetic trains operates in accordance with the electromagnetic levitation principle. It is based on the attractive forces between individually controlled electromagnets disposed in the floor section of the car and the ferromagnetic reaction rails installed below the rail line.
Basically the rail line, which can be a single track or a double track rail line, consists of individual supports of steel or concrete, for example 50 m long. Besides extending on the level ground, the rail line can also be placed on girders. For this purpose the supports are disposed on girders which are fixedly anchored in the ground. In the process, the girders can be columns extending inclined toward each other, whose distance decreases in the direction of the rail line. Girders of concrete with a clear height of 4.50 m, for example, have been proven effective here.
As a result of the construction the rail line, i.e. the free surface above which the car floats at always the same distance, is always horizontal. Because of this, bends or curves in the rail line must have a large radius.
Girders of steel or concrete intended for the rail lines of magnetic levitation trains have been described in a publication by Hans Alscher and Hans-Georg Raschbichler, entitled "Demonstrationsanlage fur Magnetschwebetechnik zur Internationalen Verkehrsausstellung (IVA) 1979" [Demonstration Installation of Magnetic Levitation Technology in Connection with the International Transport Exhibition] in a special publication of ETR--Eisenbahntechnische Rundschau [Magazine of Railroad Technology], vol. 4, 1979, pp. 3 to 14, and by Dieter Hilliges and Peter Molzer, "Der Fahrweg der Transrapid Versuchsanlage Emsland (TVE)" [The Rail Line of the Emsland Transrapid Test Installation] in ZEV-Glas Ann. 105, 1981, No. 7/8, July/August, pp. 205 to 215. Girders can be embodied to be adjustable as well, as can be seen in German Patent Publications DE 41 28 022 A1 and DE 34 04 061 C1. Steel girders for cranes are known from U.S. Pat. No. 945,751.